Feeding your dog raw food

[warthog]

Well today is the day for changing our dogs over to raw food.

George had stomach upsets again yesterday. Don't know if its the dry food or not, but he has had quite a few funny tummies recently.

I've being doing a lot of research and I feel now is the time to make the switch, it's horrifying what is said to be in dry food.

With regard to how much to feed from what I read it is suggested that you should start at around 2% of the body weight and increase/decrease according to condition. Obviously every dog is going to be different.

I am initially going to keep them on just raw meat, bone, tendon, skin, organ meat and a small amount of muscle meat only.

I am not at this stage going to include vegetables, in that I believe dogs are carnivores not omnivores. Supplements I will give if needed.

Well here goes:

 

[sylvie]

I asked my vet about RAW for dogs. She said it would be a personal choice but not one she recommends. She came back in the room with a handout from off the computer. It basically says that dogs have evolved with people for the last 10,000(+) years, eating what people eat and haven't eaten a wild raw diet for most of that time.
I'll try to locate the paper for it's exact wording.
My dog will eat any dead chipmunk, rabbit, mouse that my cat leaves by the door with no ill effects. The instinct seems very intact despite the centuries it has supposedly been bred out.
Are there any vets that consider a raw diet compliant?

 

[warthog]

Vets probably won't, it would seem that a lot of funding is done by pet food manufacturers to veterinary school.

I have just fed our dogs their first raw meal, they looked at us a little stange (what is this), but George finished all his, and Max ate about half. They will not get anything until morning now.

 

[krzybo]

I've been raw feeding for several years. I have a rescued Maltese/Poodle mix that did great for a while then started itching, licking her feet and scratching all the time. After many months of trying this and that and this some more we decided she became allergic to chicken, wheat and maybe beef. She is now on lamb, which is very hard to find raw. I have her on a lamb/rice dry food with some frozen lamb (too expensive to have just frozen lamb). I'm wondering if I had switched her food up some and not just feed chicken for so long if this wouldn't have happened. My Boston Terrier eats anything and does great with it. Has anyone else had this experience before?

Thanks for having this post.

 

[warthog]

What make you think she is allergic to chicken, both our dogs who have been on dry food, always had meat with it, albeit cooked meat, and in the main it was chicken. They of course did get a selection of meat, but mostly chicken.

I would be inclined to think it's the dry food causing the allergies not the chicken. JMO

I am sure others will give you their thoughts.

 

[krzybo]

What make you think she is allergic to chicken, both our dogs who have been on dry food, always had meat with it, albeit cooked meat, and in the main it was chicken. They of course did get a selection of meat, but mostly chicken.

I would be inclined to think it's the dry food causing the allergies not the chicken. JMO

I am sure others will give you their thoughts.

She was raw feed for a long time with no dry food when the itching started. I tried different foods for a while. It was a matter of taking her off certain foods and adding them back to see what happened. She was on all raw but when I went to a dry lamb and rice she stopped itching after one week on the food. I can give her a small piece of chicken or even chicken stock and she starts scratching. The same with wheat and beef. It is amazing at how bad she will scratch after a small amount of certain foods. I tried the vet for a while but all they wanted to do was put her on steroids, which helped but did not take care of the itching. Please don't get me wrong, I am a true believer in raw feeding but with "Gretta" it didn't work. If I could get raw lamb for a reasonable price she would still be on all raw food. I'm going to try rabbit but for now she stays on the dry with a small amount of frozen because she it not itching and so much happier.

 

[warthog]

Krzybo, yes I am sure you are doing the right thing, what works for one dog, doesn't mean it will work for all.

We are into day 2 of raw feeding, George seems to be adapting quite well. Max who always has been a picky eater, is eating some but not much, when I let the chickens out today, she went in to get their food (mash), so she is obviously hungry, and whilst it's hard, she will stay that way until her evening meal, then she hopefully will eat a little more.

When we first got Max as a pup, she was in such a sorry state, fleas, ticks, skin problems, you name it she had it. The skin problem turned out to be the hardest to sort out, her coat was very patchy and getting worse.

The vet said it was mange. She tired all sorts of things, horrible stuff I would rub on her coat, then had to tie her on a short leash so she couldn't lick it off (very toxic) uuuugh. Nothing was really working.

Here in Belize we have what is locally known as the "good" and the "bad" tree. Poisonwood and Gumbolimbo. The bark of the Gumbolimbo rubbed on the skin is good for any reaction to the Posionwood. It supposedly has many other benefits as well.

I decided why not! I cut some off some of the bark, put it into a saucepan with water, brought it to a boil and them simmered for an hour or so. Strain the contents of the pan, let the liquid cool and put it into a spray bottle. Got to be very careful stains everything red.

Several times a day I would spray Max with this, give it a good rubbing into the coat and skin and IT WORKED. Max has a wonderful coat now all thick and shiney. Who needs all this toxic stuff. My vet looked at me as though I was quite mad, do I care, no it worked, that's what important.

Not saying it would work for all dogs, but it did for Max.

Good luck with Gretta.

 

[freemotion]

Yeah! Great creative solution for Max!

Some dogs do develop an allergy to certain meats. I personally suspect it has to do more with how the meat is raised....it may be the antibiotics, for example, that the dog is allergic to. Some people do well with wild meat, but if I needed that, I would not know how to keep a steady supply of it here in the suburbs. Some of the fancy frozen raw dogfood companies do carry things like venison and rabbit.

 

[Wifezilla]

it would seem that a lot of funding is done by pet food manufacturers to veterinary school

Well, their entire nutrition education is funded by pet food manufacturers...and that consists of about 1 hour. That's it.

Strangely enough, this is the same amount of time US medical doctors get for their nutrition education.

Some dogs do develop an allergy to certain meats. I personally suspect it has to do more with how the meat is raised

I suspect the corn and soy in the feed given to the meat animals.

 

[Wildsky]

We just picked up a huge box of bones and fatty off cuts for our dog, along with our meat, I'm sure we have enough beef/bone for her for a good long while! She's a happy dog - she got a small bone from the top of the box and already ate that it was the size of my hand, when she was done, she rolled around on the carpet - it was hillarious!